Create visual diffs of PDF files created by LaTeX using SyncTeX.

Skillnad (english pronunciation chill-nud) is the Swedish word for difference and is a Python script for creating visual diffs of PDF files that have been created using LaTeX.

Unlike latexdiff, skillnad does not make changes to your original TeX-files to visually mark up the differences. Instead it uses the original PDF files and marks differences by overlaying color coded rectangles.

The positions of these rectangles in the PDF file are found using SyncTeX from the textual differences in the original TeX-files.

• Python 2
  • joblib (optional: for running SyncTeX in parallel)
• SyncTeX
• pdflatex

This is an early version and unfortunately the options are currently changed by editing the python script itself. At this stage only a single TeX file can be handled per run.

The script expects the following file structure in the current working directory:

old/
	main.tex
	main.pdf
	main.synctex.gz
new/
	main.tex
	main.pdf
	main.synctex.gz

After running python skillnad.py in the parent directory you will obtain (among others)

diff/
	diff.pdf
	merge.pdf

The results can then be viewed in a PDF reader by either opening merge.pdf or, alternatively, diff.pdf in "Two pages side by side" mode.

When the option compact is enabled (default) only the pages with changes on them are included in the final PDF.

See script file for further options.